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Too close

The nature of the media is they frequently focus on the most sensational cases. Thus so much has been made of the "Silent Twins" a pair of very dysfunctional young women who inen made of the "Silent Twins" a pair of very dysfunctional young women who in the end were in psychiatric care, after their behaviour could no longer be managed in the community. Wallace (1987) summarises their tragic career. When one did die, the other managed to function much better, reinforcing the stereotype of the relationship between twins to be so close as to be disabling. Of course these were not typical twins and had a long and tortuous history of behavioural problems. When these are the only twins that preschool teachers encounter on the media, then there maybe the supposition that all twins have such a close bond. In reality, their psychiatric vulnerability meant that they may have had similar problems even if they had not been multiples.

There is even a book "Evil Twins" documenting the history of 12 sets of twins you would never want to meet, including the Kray twins who played such a role in organized crime in London. There is absolutely no basis to assert that multiples are more likely to be involved in antisocial behaviour. While our Australian surveys have shown attention problems are more common in multiples, there were no differences in other problem behaviours.

So, getting information published about multiples who are successful in all respects is fundamental to altering such misconceptions.